Makeup designer Christien Tinsley knew he wanted “Chief of War,” Apple TV’s historical epic about feudal 18th-century Hawaii, to feel authentic. The problem?
“Most of what was recorded of late-1700s Hawaii at the time was done by white Englishmen,” Tinsley said. “So a lot of the depictions of the Hawaiians’ culture and tattoos from then were seen through the racial perceptions of white men.” Tinsley, who designed and oversaw the creation of every tattoo in “Chief of War,” worked with cultural consultants to make sure the ink featured on screen was both genuine and respectful to Indigenous Hawaiian cultures.
“That was my vision,” said Tinsley, a two-time Emmy winner who was nominated for an Oscar in 2005 for the makeup in “The Passion of the Christ.” “How can I bring this period of time that has never been reflected on film or television to life visually and with real accuracy? It was about celebrating this culture rather than perpetuating any derogatory representations of it from the past.”
King Kahekili (Temuera Morrison)
No character in “Chief of War” wears their culture more proudly than Morrison’s villainous King Kahekili, who has tattoos adorning much of his face and body. Tinsley described Kahekili as an “outlier” among the show’s ensemble.
“He was considered a god,” the makeup designer said of the real-life monarch. “I can’t use the phrase ‘They tattooed King Kahekili,’ because Hawaiians believe he was made as the gods made him.” That meant Tinsley had to “break all the rules” he had been taught to follow about the directions and meanings of certain designs and symbols.
“Hawaiian men typically had tattoos on the left sides of their body to enhance the masculinity on their feminine side, which is why you see this very split delineation on their bodies. For women it was the opposite. It was usually their right sides,” Tinsley said. “King Kahekili was all on the right side, which is unlike anybody else in the show.”
‘Opunui (Keala Kahuanui-Paleka)
Tinsley had to get ingenious while designing the tattoos for Kahuanui-Paleka’s antagonistic warrior ‘Opunui. “When they sent Keala to me, he was covered in both Hawaiian tattoos and a lot of contemporary ones,” the makeup designer recalled. “We knew all the extras and actors were going to have tattoos that needed to be covered. But when he stepped onto the scene, I was like, ‘Okay, we
gotta figure something out.’”
Tinsley developed a new form of cover-up makeup specifically for the series. “I created this cream makeup that’s extremely dense in color but dries on the skin and allows tattoos to attach themselves to it,” he said. “Most other makeup would have acted as a barrier, a release agent. So that became a real advantage we had on the show, and I thank Keala for pushing me in that direction.”
Kaʻahumanu (Luciane Buchanan)
In a series full of male and female warriors, Buchanan’s Ka‘ahumanu stands out. The ambitious, restless wife of King Kamehameha I (Kaina Makua) is not afraid to get blood on her hands, but she is at her best and most confident as a political operator who presents herself as softer than those around her. Tinsley conceived her tattoos — and particularly her full collar — with that in mind.
“For both the women and the men, we started really designing specifically for each character,” Tinsley said. “With the women, especially our leads, we wanted their tattoos to emphasize their position in the islands. So Ka‘ahumanu’s collar was done with a finer line than some of the others and fuller coverage because she occupies more of a leadership role than some of the other women in the show.”
Kupuohi (Te Ao o Hinepehinga)
Like Buchanan’s Ka‘ahumanu, Hinepehinga’s Kupuohi, the fierce wife of Jason Momoa’s Ka‘iana, has a collar tattoo in “Chief of War.”
Unlike Ka‘ahumanu, though, Kupuohi’s collarbone ink does not form a full circle around her shoulder area. “She was more of a warrior than Ka’ahumanu, more like one of the men, which is why she has only a half collar,” Tinsley said. “Those kinds of minor adjustments were constantly being made in the design process to separate everyone and heighten their roles in the islands’ hierarchies.”
When he was fashioning Kupuohi’s collar, which is sharper and more jagged than Ka‘ahumanu’s, Tinsley was reminded of an important fact about the characters’ lives. “While there’s a meaning to every tattoo shape, even back then there was a design element to it,” he said. “They weren’t just thinking, ‘This means this.’ It was an aesthetic choice, too.”
This story first ran in the Limited Series/TV Movie issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the issue here.
